1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40, Acts 27:1-20, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 18:22
Today is the 9th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we get sailing deeper and deeper into this week, and for that matter, as we sail deeper and deeper into the book of first Chronicles, which is what we’re working our way through. And as we mentioned a few days ago when we began this book, the first nine chapters, this is kind of like the famous genealogical portion of the Bible. And, so, we’ve discussed, you know, why it’s here and what its purpose was and it’s to remember, it’s to not forget who they were as they were carried away into exile. And, so, we’re moving…we’re moving our way through that territory, but we are nearing the end of that territory. today we’ll read first Chronicles chapters 7 and 8 and we’re reading from the New International Version this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, let’s keep track of where we are. Obviously in the Old Testament, we are in the book of first Chronicles working our way through the genealogies of, you know, the people who had been carried into exile who are trying to remember their story, remember who they are, remember where they came from, remember who God is. And if you’ll just remember kind of back through the journey we’ve taken, that theme - who you are, where you’ve come from, who God is - is a dominant theme that has carried us thus far. And, so, it’s playing out in the story of the exile.
We get to the book of Acts, and, I mean, we notice the harrowing journey that the apostle Paul has been on. Exciting for sure. Lots of travel, lots of experiences, lots of faces, lots of voices, all of that for sure, but let’s remember, you know, he’s a prominent Pharisee, an up and comer a zealous person from God, then he meets Jesus and his life gets considerably more exciting but far more perilous. And Paul used every opportunity to share the good news about Jesus. And after he was arrested in Jerusalem he began to share the good news about Jesus with the most influential people in the world, but as a Roman citizen and a new governor in town, he appealed his case to Caesar because the governor wanted him to go to Jerusalem to be tried and he felt as if his chances in Rome would be better than in Jerusalem where there were people who had vowed, like, taken vows to assassinate him. So, he’s like, “you know, if I go back to Jerusalem I’m dead. So, best shot is to go to Rome.” And, so, in today’s reading that’s what happened. Paul set sail for Rome and he sailed from the coastal city of Caesarea Maritima, which is a spectacular ruin all the way until today. It’s sort of like a truly Romanized city in the Syrian province. So, you know, Rome is Rome and the Roman Empire is the Roman Empire and it’s kind of, mostly surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. And the furthest eastward would be the province of Syria which is what included the land, the promised land, that we know of from the Bible, but it was a distant outpost. It was the furthest eastward that you would go by ship in the Roman Empire. So, Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the great who, I mean, crazy as this person was, paranoid and messed up as this person was, was a unparalleled developer. So, much from the Herodian era still stands today and is still epic. So, when Roman governors and dignitaries, and even Romans came that way, whether for business, whether to follow the via Maris, the road, whether to go to Jerusalem, like what…for whatever reason, Caesarea was built to be the playground, the town that would be legitimately and truly Roman. So, Paul had been incarcerated there for a couple years. He’d been held under house arrest for a couple years. He appealed his case to Rome. And, so, that’s where he sailed out in the Mediterranean Sea and we begin to follow the journey as the book of Acts tells us. So, he’s under the custody or in the custody of Julius who’s a centurion of the Imperial regiment and they’re gonna make several stops along the way. They do and then they’re trying to figure out, because the weather has been cooperating where they’re gonna spend the winter because they’re not gonna make it to Rome. And, so, there’s discussion and Paul prophetically speaks about the dangers of continuing, but the ship’s owner wants to continue on. And, so, the centurion continues on, and that’s where we left ourselves. The storm came as Paul said it would. It was so severe that they couldn’t find the sun or the stars, they couldn’t navigate. They couldn’t figure out anything. They were trying to lighten the ship and all hope was lost. They were resolved that they would probably die. That’s where we left them today.
Then in the Psalms we have these very, very provocative words, “whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.” So, these are very ancient words and the language from these ancient words that describe how deception comes into the world is pretty provocative. Conception is a very intimate act as is pregnancy and for that matter, as is birth. So, in this passage that David wrote in the Psalms today, he’s using poetry to show how wickedness privately and intimately schemes evil, which incubates trouble and then eventually grows up inside of us and we have to give birth and we give birth to deceit. So, that’s pretty scary stuff to be fooling around with of course, but we realize from the Bible how intimate this all is. And he continues on to show what it looks like. “Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they’ve made. The trouble they cause recoils on them. Their violence comes down on their own heads.” So, basically, if you’re gonna give birth to lies then you have to understand that the result will be your own entrapment. And, so, wisdom is sitting here for us and it would be wise to remember this passage when we start fabricating a false reality, whether it’s, you know, a part of our inner monologue, the things that we tell ourselves inside of our own head that we makeup to justify things or any other kind of conversation or deed. Only the truth, only the truth will set us free. And when we look at our Savior and we consider being like Him, to be Christ like, one of things that we cannot ignore and is impossible to miss is that Jesus was true.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. Come, help us to understand the places that we are incubating evil, that we have conceived, that this has become an intimate part of who we are. And the deception that we give birth to is only bringing darkness into the world that ultimately only overshadows us. We’re hurting ourselves when we are untrue. So, come Holy Spirit into that because the truth is, if we start examining that it’s daunting because we’ve fabricated so much falseness around ourselves and around who we’re portraying that we are, and we’re enslaved by fear of each other because we’ll probably be judged by each other because we’re judging each other. It’s just a very, very slippery slope, a big vortex that we keep spinning downward into and the antidote is that we be true. Come Holy Spirit we pray into that we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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Also, we’ll be going back to Israel. And I haven’t mentioned that in a little while, but we’ll be going to Israel in 2020 in February and we were just talking about Caesarea Maritima where Paul set sail for Rome, that’s what reminded me of this because that’s a place that we always go. It’s a pretty spectacular place indeed. So, if, you know, coming to the land of the Bible is something that’s been calling to you or is on your bucket list, check it out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Look for Israel 2020. There are precious few spots left but check out. Love to have you.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Julie from New York. I’m calling today to reach out for Mike who called for his wife Heather for her anxiety, which is really bad right now. I’m asking all of us to pray for them. Praying for you Heather that the Lord protect you and shield you from all worry and heal every single bit of your anxiety and let you feel that instead of running in circles with worry you run to Him and let Him wrap His arms around you and heal you of all anxiety. And I pray for Mike, that he continue to be such a wonderful, loving supportive husband and support you during this time. And I guess I just…I want you to know Mike that I heard you and I’m praying very hard for you and your wife and I pray for full healing of that anxiety. Let it be gone. Father God let the anxiety of Heather be gone. Let her feel safe, happy and healthy all the days through. Amen.
Hello DABbers, this is Jared the Encourager. I’m praying today for Mike and his wife Heather because she’s been having anxiety. I just heard this request on the 5th and as I was thinking about praying for Heather I looked up the name Heather and what it means, and it comes from a plant, Heather, which is a beautiful plant in the barren plains that has the ability to grow there where nothing else does, the Scottish Moors. This is a place where nothing would grow. They were barren and desolate but the Heather plant with its cheerful pink and white flowers has now grown and thrived and it’s made these once barren plains a beautiful loved place that’s no longer lonely. So, Lord I thank You for Heather and I thank You for Your hand in her life. I thank You for the care and concern of her husband Mike. I thank You that You are working to show her Your strength to not only survive through difficulty but to thrive in the most difficult of circumstances. I ask that she would turn her eyes to You, that she would be ever fascinated by Your love, that You would strengthen her husband Mike. With Your strength to see her through Your eyes, to love her with Your love, to serve her in the way that she needs to be served. In Jesus’ name. I’m so thankful for all of you. You are so wonderful, and you give me strength when you call in, your voices and your consistency. This is a wonderful community. And Brian, thank you for the birds that you play in the background. The birds are everywhere no matter where I’ve been as traveled the country. Those same bird sounds are everywhere and remind me of God’s constant love and provision for us. As we see the birds take flight, as we hear their song, we can remember that God is…
Hi DAB family. I have an issue. I thank God for __ I know but I have been falling for my best friend who has been saved and I’ve been praying against my feelings. I’ve been trying to create distance. I’ve been doing all the procedures possible to just get him out of my heart because I have my standards, I know what the Bible says, and I still need a godly man. So, I don’t want to settle for him just because he’s a nice guy, which he is. But I just ask for you to all please pray for me that I would be strong, and I wouldn’t bend and that I wouldn’t…that I would be able to move on from this and I be free from these feelings because it’s been a few months and I’m getting really tired because I just want them to be gone. So, I really covet your prayers family. Thank you and bye.
This is Kathy from Kentucky. I want to let you know I’m doing well in my retirement. I’m beginning to see God’s purpose for me. I’m getting rested and getting things done around the house and I’m finding plenty of volunteer opportunities. But in addition, I’m finding that God wants me to learn to have fun which I never did as a kid. So, now I feel like I am in my second adolescence learning to have fun. So, maybe I don’t know what else God has planned for me but it’s just a healing process and I ask you to continue to pray for me. My volunteer opportunities are with addiction, those trapped in addiction and diabetes, which we have a lot of here in Kentucky with the opioid crisis and epidemic and also with the diabetes epidemic. So, pray for me to learn to relax and enjoy life. Kathy from Kentucky. Thank you. Bye.